Darkness
by Vegeta Goddess
Summary: Ryss is forced to team up with Raven when she realises a newly risen ancient zoidian is hunting her. Can Ryss resist the pull of this new ancient Zoidian and more importantly can she resist this new feeling she has for Raven? (Raven/Ryss)
1. The Meeting

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Zoids…although I really, really wish I owned my very own Raven…*sigh*

A/N – This is my very first Zoids fic, I do write other fan fiction under a different account, but this will be my very first Zoids fic. This fic is going to be a Raven/Ryss fic, please don't flame about the couple…I don't mind if you think my fic is crappy and my writing sucks, but don't dump on me because of the pairing. I happen to think that Raven and Ryss go wonderfully together and it's pretty obvious in Zoids that they're getting it on…in my mind ^_^

~*~

Ryss watched the small blue bugs crawl around on her palm, then raised her eyes to her blue organoid as Specula crooned softly beside her and pointed it's snout in the direction of the back room of the house where Raven was lying.

She had come across Raven in the middle of the desert two days ago, unconscious and bleeding. He hadn't been able to tell her anything about what had happened to him. He hadn't even woken up yet.

All Ryss knew was that the Geno-breaker had been smashed almost beyond repair and both Shadow and Specula had been on edge since.

Something was out in that desert, something strong enough to take Raven to pieces and scare both of their organoids.

Specula crooned again and nudged Ryss. 

"I know, he'll be awake soon and then he'll be able to tell us what's going on." A shivery feeling worked its way down Ryss's back and she watched as one of the blue bugs took off with a slight humming sound to fly out the window. 

Specula let out yet another louder crooning noise and Ryss rose form the floor to gaze out the window after her bug. "I feel it too Specula, something very wrong has come to power."

From the back room Shadow hissed and Ryss turned her head as she heard Raven groan quietly. She walked across the room and stood at the doorway, staring in at Raven who had managed to sit up.

"Where am I?" He demanded, looking angrily around him as though horrified to find himself anywhere near her.

"My home." Ryss grinned, her eyes flashing in the dim light. "You were almost dead when I found you."

"I don't need your help; you should have just left me." Raven attempted to stand but crumpled to the floor with a small groan, glaring up at Ryss as he realised he was dressed in different clothes to what he'd been wearing before the fight and glaring even harder when he realised that Ryss must have undressed him and then redressed him.

He looked up at Ryss like an angry little kitten as she helped him back into bed, his cheeks flaming with embarrassment. "Just leave me alone."

Shadow hissed at Ryss and moved closer to Raven, half blocking him from her view. Behind her, Ryss felt Specula draw close and hiss back at Shadow.

"Call your organoid off, Raven, I only want to talk to you." Ryss raised an eyebrow. "Or are you afraid of me?"

"No!" Raven jerked the bed covers up to his chin and glared at Reese as she stared mockingly down at him. "I don't fear anyone."

"Not even the person who did this to you?" Ryss sat down on a corner of the bed. "Or should I say something?"

"I…I don't know. I don't remember." Raven stroked the nose of his organoid and ignored Ryss.

"Are you sure you don't remember anything?" Ryss moved closer to Raven again placed a hand on either side of his head. Raven drew in a breath at her close proximity and Shadow growled like a rabid dog. "Because if you really don't remember anything I may just have to go into your head and find out what you saw for myself."

Ravens eyes widened and he put a hand to her chest and attempted to push her away, but failing miserably in his weakened state. "I don't want you in my head, Ryss."

"Well if you won't tell me…" Ryss pouted and sat up. "Maybe Shadow will."

Raven looked dubiously at her. "Shadow won't tell _you anything!"_

Ryss held up her hand on which two of the blue bugs sat, their antennae twitching wildly. "I don't like threatening people, Raven, but if you won't tell me and Shadow won't tell me then I'll just have to use my little friends here." Ryss tilted her head at an angle and stared down at Raven with her empty green eyes. "I don't see why you won't tell me what you saw."

"I don't want you to know what beat me…it…it's so stupid. It shouldn't have defeated me." Raven was looking at Shadow as he talked. "I don't know what it was…but it was in a red Shield Liger, and it easily defeated me. Even with Shadow it still defeated me." Raven clenched his teeth and Shadow crooned soothingly and laid his head on the bed next to Raven's head.

Ryss nodded. "Then it is as I feared, the Death Stalker has risen once more."

"The Death Stalker?" Raven was staring at her again with his intense grey eyes. "What…?"

"It's an ancient Zoidian legend. The Death Stalker is the ghost of an ancient organoid which can be summoned _only by an ancient Zoidian. Once the Death Stalker has been awakened it can inhabit any Zoid it choses, taking complete control. The only one who can control the Death Stalker is the ancient Zoidian who awoke it."_

"But that doesn't make sense!" Raven exploded. "The only ancient Zoidian's still alive are you and Fiona, and since _you obviously didn't wake it and since I can't see good-hearted Fiona awakening a monster, who woke it?"_

"Perhaps there is another ancient Zoidian we don't yet know about." Ryss looked down into Raven's angry eyes and smiled coldly. "I can certainly feel a change in the air of late. Perhaps another of us has awoken, and perhaps he is not happy with the way planet Zi is being run." Ryss through back her head and laughed. "It would certainly explain why you were attacked."

"Shut up!" Raven grabbed Ryss by the shoulders in a sudden burst of energy and shook her. "Don't laugh at me."

Ryss stopped laughing and stared down at Raven, something slithered through her eyes and Raven abruptly let her go, blushing as his hand accidentally brushed against her breast in his haste to withdraw his hands.

"Don't grab me like that ever again." Ryss said quietly before standing up and slowly leaving the room. Specula aiming a parting hiss at the still blushing Raven.

~*~

"Feeling any better?" Ryss slunk back into the room and looked at Raven who was looking, if anything a little worse.

"Why are you doing this?" Raven tried to look angry again but his hears wasn't in it.

"You took care of me after Hiltz tried to kill us, now it's my turn to take care of you." Ryss looked down at the soup and then looked at him. "Now tell me truthfully, are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine…if you'd just help me get to my Geno-breaker I'll be on my way." Raven pushed back the sheet and managed to sit up before flopping back against the headboard, breathing heavily.

"You're in no state to go wandering about the desert, neither is your Geno-breaker." Ryss sat down on the bed again, this time Raven realised she was holding onto a mug.

"What's in that?" Raven sniffed suspiciously as he smelt some kind of strange herb.

"It's just some soup. I didn't have any bowls to put it in so it's in a mug." Ryss held it out to him. "Trust me; it'll make you feel better."

Raven carefully took it from her and looked at it suspiciously.

"Raven, it's not poisoned. If I wanted you dead I'd have killed you by now, the fact is you're useful to me alive." Ryss took the mug back from him and took a long sip before she handed it back. "See, I'm fine. It's just soup."

Raven carefully took a sip, then another and another as he realised how hungry he was.

"There's more in the kitchen if you're still hungry when you finish that." Ryss smiled at him almost kindly and Raven realised, not for the first time, how stunning she was.

It was odd that he hadn't realised she was an ancient Zoidian when he'd first met her. She had the same look to her as Fiona did…only Ryss was everything Fiona was not.

She was a ruthless and unscrupulous Zoid pilot. She didn't value human life and seemed to care only for Specula and those blue bugs she always had with her. Not to mention tat while Fiona was good looking in a blonde and naïve way, Ryss was attractive in the same way that a fierce jungle cat was attractive; gorgeous but with claws.

Raven felt his body tighten in response to his thoughts and he choked on his soup as he fought to bring his treacherous body under control again.

He was a hardened warrior! Not some teenage boy anymore! If Ryss ever found out what he was thinking about her she'd probably tear him apart in a second.

But as Raven looked up and met Ryss's eyes he had the feeling that somehow she knew his thoughts.

"I'll get you some more soup shall I? You've spilt half of yours all over yourself when you coughed." Ryss looked at his shirt in distaste and Raven hastily pulled it off then looked back at Ryss who was staring at his chest. She looked up and saw him looking at her and a small blush crept onto her cheeks as she hastily backed towards the door.

"This is weird." Raven muttered to himself. 

Shadow nodded in agreement and Raven sighed. He'd been attracted to Ryss ever since their fight against Hiltz and Prosien…and he'd known that during that fight Ryss had come to like him a little more. For a short amount of time they'd been closer then Raven would have thought possible.

But that had happened years ago and Ryss and he had drifted apart. The past was only the past now.

Raven knew he didn't love her anything as idiotic as that, but the thought of dragging Ryss down onto the bed with him wasn't unpleasant at all. He could imagine them, lying together, their bodies hot and sweaty. Ryss's mouth pressed against his as he…

"Your soup." Ryss walked back in and handed him another mug.

Raven cleared his through, praying he wasn't blushing yet again before he began drinking it.

~*~

A/N – There's the first chapter. The next chapter should be up soon...but I'm writing 3 other DBZ fics at the moment.


	2. The Power

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Zoids…although I really, really wish I owned my very own Raven…*sigh*

A/N – I know this took a long time to get out, but what can I say? I did warn you all that I am writing 3 other fics…and re-writing another 2. Eh…too much work! Stupid College!

~*~

Ryss rubbed her temples as she sat on the crumbling brick wall in front of her house. The endless rolling dune hills stretched away on either side, glowing a pinkish orange as the setting sun cast its final rays across the sunburnt country.

            She sighed softly as Specula nudged her back and crooned behind her. Her organoid was frightened of something, the same thing that had been pulsing in Ryss' head ever since she had found Raven lying in the desert.

            There was a power out there in the desert somewhere. An unbelievably frightening power that vibrated along Ryss' bones whenever she paid attention to it. It was almost painful the power was so great, but fear was something that Ryss had conquered long ago so she paid no heed to the butterflies in her stomach.

            "I thought I'd found you out here." Raven's footfalls were almost silent as they approached her. His breathing was rough as though he was still injured but quiet as though he was trying to hide this fact from her.

            "Well they're aren't many places to go." Ryss idly stroked Specula's glowing blue snout and hummed softly as it nestled into her. She could feel Specula's organoid power rippling along her skin like a warm wind. Her organoid's power was comforting and blocked out some of the other power that was always present in the air.

            "What are you doing out here?" Raven asked quietly as he sat down beside her, Shadow settling down next to him as though he were a pet dog.

            Ryss tilted her head to the side as she considered Shadow; the organoid looked back at her and made an uneasy sound, signalling that it too could feel the strange power in the air.

            "I asked you a question." Raven frowned at Ryss and tucked a stray strand of his spiky black hair behind his ear. Shadow nudged his leg as though scared and Raven frowned harder as he placed his hand on top of his friends head; the feel of smooth, cold metal oddly soothing.

            "I'm trying to work out what it is." Ryss scuffed her boot into the sand glanced sideways at Raven, her green eyes wide with uncertainty. "Whatever that thing was that attacked you in the desert is getting closer. I can feel it and so can both our organoids."

"I don't feel anything." Raven sounded annoyed and he shifted close to Ryss, forcing her to pay attention to him. "Why can't I feel anything?"

"I feel it because I'm an ancient Zoidian and I'm sensitive to zoid powers, it's the same with Specula and Shadow. You however are just a human so you wouldn't feel the power we can feel." Ryss felt a small shiver flow up her spine as Raven's eyes travelled down and up her body as she talked.

"What does it feel like?" He moved closer still and Ryss' body almost hummed with tension as she wondered if he would make a move on her. She hadn't bothered to hide her crush on him back when they had been working with Hiltz together.

"It…it hurts." Ryss faced Raven but kept her eyes carefully blank. Specula made a small hissing sound and Ryss quickly gave it a reassuring pat. "It feels like millions of little needles pricking your skin…and at the same tie it's like a pressure in your head." 

Raven nodded slowly and looked away. "Do you think its Hiltz? Do you think he's back again?" He glanced sideways at her again.

"This isn't like Hiltz. Hiltz was empty…his power was like a great big black hole. I would never have even noticed that he was an ancient Zoidian if he hadn't told us." Ryss slowly shook her head as she remembered how Hiltz had fooled her. "This power is like nothing I've felt before. It's worse then the Death Saurer…worse then the Death Stinger…it's just bad." Ryss voice shook slightly and she cursed under her breath at this show of weakness. 

"Its getting to you isn't it?" Rave frowned in concern and reached a hand out to touch Ryss face before he realised what he was doing. 

"It feels wrong." Ryss sighed ever so slightly as Raven's hand touched her face and he traced her jaw line. She faced him and had to swallow the small trembling smile that threatened to spill across her lips. Instead she looked at him almost emotionlessly, only allowing her eyes to show her gratitude for his small act of understanding.

Abruptly, Ryss pulled back and laughed under her breath. "It doesn't matter though, what do I care if the world is thrown back into chaos again? At least it'll keep the Guardian Force busy for a time." She snorted in amusement as she thought about Van and his little gang.

"Have you ever seen _them_ since the battle against the Dark Kaiser?" Raven kept his distance from Ryss, unsure of why he had touched her face and disliking the fat that he had such little control over his body when he was around her.

"Oh yes." Ryss laughed again. "Every time I go out I seem to run into t least one of them. Fiona's alright, she doesn't bother me that much – after what Hiltz tried with her she thinks she understand me better." Ryss shook her head. "She doesn't even bother to hide her feelings form me. She thinks Hiltz bullied me into the person I am. If she knew the truth…" She trailed off and tossed her blue hair defiantly, Specula roaring for emphasis. "I'd hate to be her right now, she was always more sensitive to zoid power then I was. This must be incredibly painful for her."

"What about Van?" Raven ignored the urge to run his fingers through her glossy hair; instead he kept one hand on Shadow.

"Him!" Ryss snorted dismissively. "Every time I see him he's either asking about you or trying to blame me for some incident or another – most of which I'm not behind." Ryss crossed her legs and pursed her lips.

"Most?" Raven chuckled. "You still haven't given up your old ways then?"

"Old habits die hard, and there's always plenty of work for a renegade like me. I sell my services to the highest bidder." Realising what she's said Ryss blushed.

"Really?" Raven smirked, enjoying Ryss embarrassment. It served her right after how she'd acted while he had been in bed earlier! "Can I enquire how much you usually charge? I could do with some servicing myself." Getting into the spirit of it Raven raised his eyebrows suggestively, not put off when Ryss gave him a death glare.

Shadow made a sound of amusement and she switched her glare to the black organoid instead. "You men are all the same!" Ryss made to stand up when suddenly the horizon began to glow a sickly green colour.

"What on Zi is that?" Raven stood up and stared at the glowing horizon, a faint wind the only warning before a huge shock wave hit them. The force of the energy ripple whipping up sand around them and hurling Ryss, Raven and their organoids to the ground.

The air around then groaned and the ground rumbled. Unable to contain the horrible feeling that the power was causing in her Ryss shrieked; her voice joined by the roars of the two organoids as the power rushed over them in a bubbling wave…

**~*~**

**_A/N – That's all I can manage for now, but trust e when I say that the next chapter should be out a lot sooner then this one! I feel terrible for how long it took me! Please Review!_**


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